Frost

Title: Frost (The Frost Chronicles - Book One)

Author: Kate Avery Ellison

Edition: Kindle

Date Read: October, 2012
Genre: Dystopia, Fantasy, YA

Rating: 7

In the icy, monster-plagued world of the Frost, one wrong move and a person could end up dead—and Lia Weaver knows this better than anyone. After monsters kill her parents, she must keep the family farm running despite the freezing cold and threat of monster attacks or risk losing her siblings to reassignment by the village Elders. With dangers on all sides and failure just one wrong step away, she can’t afford to let her emotions lead her astray. So when her sister finds a fugitive bleeding to death in the forest—a young stranger named Gabe—Lia surprises herself and does the unthinkable.
She saves his life.
 - Goodreads

My Review:
 Lovely, lovely little novel.
Ms. Ellison created this beautiful but deadly world of the Frost. I was so intrigued by the setting, I just loved how this little town was tucked away in the harshest winter forest and was able to survive and thrive. I wish we knew a little more about that aspect though, like the quotas and such, I felt it was a little bit untouched when it had some more potential.
Lia and Gabe were lovely, I really enjoyed their romantic interests but at the same time wished it was drawn out just a tad bit more, to me it just felt a little rushed.  I respected Lia's determination to keep her family going and I loved that part of the story, that drive to hope the family was going to be okay. Gabe was a lovely character and he balanced out Lia's personality really nice, but again, I really do wish he and Lia would have interacted a bit more during the story.
Lia's siblings were good supporting characters, I think they provided the correct amount of input to the story, but I did feel like some of the other characters were lacking something, though some did start showing potential near the end. (I'm holding out for the second book that all those loose ends with the characters will be tied all nicely for me)
The ending was rather quick, and I wished we would have had a more in depth view of the Watchers, who are the monsters that the villagers fear, but I did really like that we got some history on them and why and what they are watching, though it did seem slightly rushed as the end of the book neared. The situation with Gabe and Lia at the end left me rather unsatisfied, though I was really touched by the letter he left her for when she got home. It definitely made me go "awwwwwwwwwwwwww" out loud!
Over all it was lovely, and I did really like it. I can't wait to read the second book, and I really am hoping its going to answer a lot of my questions that were left kinda dangling.

Favorite Quotes:
 - “Love is a perilous dance too, you see. And if we stop dancing, we'll die. Don't ever stop dancing.”

 - “I’d allowed myself to feel love –yes, love– for another person in a way I’d once sworn to myself I never would. I’d become completely vulnerable, and now I’d been torn apart with hurt and catapulted onto a path I might never have taken otherwise. I’d risked my life for an outsider. For a stranger. Worse, I had a feeling I was going to do it again.”